The present application relates to a semiconductor structure and a method of forming the same. More particularly, the present application relates to a semiconductor structure and an electronic integrated circuit which include an interconnect structure that has at least one graphene based device within at least one of the levels of the interconnect structure. The present application also relates to methods of forming such a semiconductor structure and circuit.
Several trends presently exist in the semiconductor and electronics industry including, for example, devices are being fabricated that are smaller, faster and require less power than the previous generations of devices. One reason for these trends is that personal devices such as, for example, cellular phones and personal computing devices, are being fabricated that are smaller and more portable. In addition to being smaller and more portable, personal devices also require increased memory, more computational power and speed. In view of these ongoing trends, there is an increased demand in the industry for smaller and faster transistors used to provide the core functionality of the integrated circuits used in these devices.
Accordingly, in the semiconductor industry there is a continuing trend toward fabricating integrated circuits (ICs) with higher densities. To achieve higher densities, there has been, and continues to be, efforts toward down scaling the dimensions of the devices on semiconductor wafers generally produced from bulk silicon. These trends are pushing the current technology to its limits. In order to accomplish these trends, high densities, smaller feature sizes, smaller separations between features, and more precise feature shapes are required in integrated circuits (ICs).
Significant resources go into down scaling the dimensions of devices and increasing packing densities. For example, significant time may be required to design such down scaled transistors. Moreover, the equipment necessary to produce such devices may be expensive and/or processes related to producing such devices may have to be tightly controlled and/or be operated under specific conditions. Accordingly, there are significant costs associated with exercising quality control over semiconductor fabrication.
In view of the above, the semiconductor industry is pursuing graphene to achieve some of the aforementioned goals. Graphene, which is essentially a flat sheet of carbon atoms, is a promising material for radio frequency (RF) transistors and other electronic transistors. Typical RF transistors are made from silicon, alloys of Si, e.g., SiGe, or more expensive semiconductors such as, for example, indium phosphide (InP).
As the performance of electronic devices obtainable by reducing the dimension of the devices is reaching a limit, further value could be added to a very large scale integrated (VLSI) circuit by integrating additional functions in the interconnect of the VLSI.